Reader and Calendar in Gmail

You can read your feeds subscribed via Google Reader or access the Google Calendar’s features right from the interface of Gmail. Here’s how you do it.

You’ll need first need greasemonkey, a Mozilla Firefox addon. As you might know greasemonkey is an addon for mozilla which allows users to write Javascript codes or use readymade ones to alter the functionalities and visibilities of a web page. Then you’ll need to download a greasemonkey script to read your feeds in Gmail. Once this script is installed, reload Gmail and you’ll see Feeds link in the left hand pane also showing the number of unread feeds. Clicking on it will let you read your feeds as you’d do in Google Reader. What’s more amazing is that the feeds take lesser time to load in Gmail than in Google Reader.

You can also see your Google Calendar agenda in Gmail by using another greasemonkey Script. After installing this script, you’ll be able to view your Google Calendar agenda in the Gmail’s sidebar. The sidebar can be collapsed when you do not need it. You can also add events to your calendar directly from Gmail.